Governor Signs Bills Targeting Slave Rings

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a package of legislation Wednesday intended to crack down on slave rings that force people -- often poor and illegal immigrants -- to perform menial and sometimes debasing work in sweatshops, construction and prostitution.

“The practice of trafficking in human beings -- modern-day slavery -- is a horrific crime that our society cannot abide,” Schwarzenegger said.

The legislation establishes a felony crime of human trafficking, which is a national problem that particularly afflicts California.

Though law enforcement has been able to prosecute many of those crimes under existing state and federal laws, including kidnapping and pimping, advocates said the new law would help convict those who use psychological coercion.

They said it also would better focus California authorities on finding and stopping such schemes.

Advocates also heralded provisions that would provide new support for victims, including measures making it easier to obtain restitution and federal benefits. The law also is designed to provide reassurance for victims who are reluctant to report rings because they fear being deported.

“This represents a sea change in the way California’s law enforcement can have an impact on some of the most vulnerable communities,” said San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris, one of the legislation’s sponsors.

Human trafficking has bedeviled California for years. In 1995, 71 Thai workers were freed from virtual slavery in an El Monte sweatshop. A study earlier this year from UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center identified 57 forced labor operations in California between 1998 and 2003.

A $6-million trafficking ring in Mountain View that forced Chinese women to work off debts in massage parlors inspired the central of three laws Schwarzenegger signed, AB 22, sponsored by the area’s assemblywoman, Sally Lieber, a Democrat.

Lieber said the law would aid people like Florencia Molina, who was lured from Mexico in 2002 by a female trafficker with promises of a good job only to be pressed into 17-hour days at a Los Angeles garment shop.

“She told me she could do whatever she wanted because dogs have more rights in this country than I have,” said Molina, who escaped after 40 days.

The bills signed Wednesday allow for people convicted of human trafficking to receive up to five years in prison, or eight years if the victim is under 18. Offenders can continue to be prosecuted under other laws, such as kidnapping and rape, that carry stiffer sentences.

The legislation also makes it easier for victims to sue and recover damages, and gives conversations with sexual assault counselors the same legal protections that are provided doctors.

The bills also set up a task force to monitor human trafficking, find better ways of assisting victims -- including setting up shelters tailored to their needs -- and evaluate California’s success in combating the problem.

Kay Buck, the executive director of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, a Los Angeles-based group that was one of the legislation’s sponsors, said the package, along with separate training money, would help encourage local police to recognize signs of forced labor and investigate them.

“The federal government doesn’t have the resources or access to walk down the street in Los Angeles or the Central Valley,” she said.

The measure is expected to cost the state about $1 million through prison costs and new staff at the attorney general’s office. With no Democratic opposition, it passed by wide margins in the Legislature, where 10 of the 47 Republicans voted against it. A spokesman for the Senate GOP caucus said Wednesday that he did not know why the lawmakers objected.

A number of other states have enacted somewhat similar laws, including Arizona, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas and Washington. But advocates of California’s human-trafficking law said it was the most comprehensive because it would address not only law enforcement issues but would help victims get money and protect them from being deported if they told authorities about the rings.

Under California’s law, within 15 days after local law enforcement officials find a victim of human trafficking, they must issue an affidavit telling federal immigration authorities that the person was victimized by trafficking and is cooperating with officials. Lieber said that affidavit would help trafficked people get special victim visa status that allows them to stay in the country for up to three years.

The law takes effect in January. However, advocates said more needs to be done on the subject.

Next year, Lieber said, she wants to explore making tougher laws against debt bondage, in which people are brought illegally to California with the promise of a job and then told that they must pay back the cost of the transportation, often through wages.

“The state Legislature has just raised the bar in anti-trafficking legislation,” said Jolene Smith, executive director of Free the Slaves, a Washington, D.C.-based group, “and now it’s up to the next state to raise it again.”

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Times staff reporter Nancy Vogel contributed to this report.